Virendra Pandit
New Delhi: As the countdown to December 25 began, Pope Francis, 88, in his annual Christmas message, reprimanded his staff for ‘gossiping,’ the media reported on Saturday.
During the Group of Seven (G-7) Summit in Italy, in June 2024, Prime Minister Narendra Modi met the Pope and invited him to visit India.
A wheezing and congested-sounding, he urged the prelates instead to speak well of one another and undertake a humble examination of their consciences.
He told Vatican bureaucrats to stop speaking ill of one another, as he once again used his annual Christmas greetings to admonish the “backstabbing and gossiping,” among his closest collaborators.
The pontiff was quoted as saying that a church community lives in joyful and fraternal harmony to the extent that its members walk in a life of humility, renouncing evil thinking and speaking ill of others. “Gossip is an evil that destroys social life, sickens people’s hearts, and leads to nothing. The people say it very well: Gossip is zero.”
Cautioning them about this tendency, he told them: “Beware of this.”
The Pope is known for a public dressing down of some of the sins in the workplace at the headquarters of the Catholic Church.
In 2014, he listed the 15 ailments of the Curia, in which he accused the prelates of using their Vatican careers to grab power and wealth. He accused them of living hypocritical double lives and forgetting due to spiritual Alzheimer’s that they’re supposed to be joyful men of God.
In 2022, Francis warned them that the devil lurks among them, saying it is an elegant demon that works in people who have a rigid, holier-than-thou way of living the Catholic faith.
This year, the Pope revisited a theme he has often warned about: gossiping and speaking ill of people behind their backs. It was a reference to the sometimes toxic atmosphere in closed environments such as the Vatican or workplaces where office gossip and criticism circulate.
Francis has long welcomed frank and open debates and even criticism of his own work. But he has urged critics to tell it to his face, and not behind his back.
The annual appointment kicks off Francis’ busy Christmas schedule, this year made even more strenuous because of the start of the Vatican’s Holy Year on Christmas Eve.